But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15

Can we know God?

I was interviewing a very prominent apologist (not Christian) and I asked him if there was an objective truth about God. To which he responded with “No”.

His reasoning was that since religion and spirituality were so abstract of ideas, then everyone’s interpretation must be different, and all of our individual interpretations are different from the objective truth about God.

The fact is that there is no evidence for this claim. And even if there was evidence for this claim, then he would still be claiming to know something objective about God. Which, according to him, would be a self-defeating statement.

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One thought on “Can we know God?”

Excellent post! Great question!
There is evidence for this claim however we need to understand that what we have here is a failure in logic and/or a misunderstanding of the subject object split. Let’s take something easy at first. Art for instance, an abstract painting, I examine it and due to my classical art training I evaluate it and say that this abstraction is reminiscent of post modern Impressionism. And you say that due to the picture’s realism it must be some sort of neo baroque. Who here is right? Let’s add 7 billion others to the equation and we have 7 billion more opinions some of which may be similar and some of which may be diametrically opposed. Objectively the picture is just a picture subjectivity the picture is many many things. Now this example is just a picture let alone a literary work such as the Bible, the Koran, or the Tora. Certainly the different sects in Christianity alone is strong evidence of this.

Secondly how should a subject observe an object. Does someone who is colour blind see the same way as you do? If god is omnipresent etc. how should we with our limited senses perceive her? Before you answer ask yourself could a circle see or comprehend a sphere? This is not claiming to know something objective about god it is recognizing the limitations of our existence. Does the sphere care if the circle cannot see it? Do we care if an ant perceives us correctly? No we don’t.

Now think about this, if the subject and the object were not separable or one and the same, then we could know the other by truly knowing ourselves by looking into a mirror for example or by looking within. This is being made in god’s exact image or the non-dual truth of the Buddha Dharma.

Sherlock Holmes once said “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”